Rendevous Summary sent to BCLS

Prepared by event Chair - Jerome.

Rendezvous 2019.

An interesting and different experience from past events.  How you say? 

1. We ran a campsite as a club to accommodate campers as camping in the area was limited and

facilities were heavily booked in 2018 as it was a long weekend event.

2. We contracted a mine site to give participants the opportunity to visit one of the premiere

mineral sites in the area at a reduced rate.

3. We catered the meal which cost  less than half the cost of the previous catered meals  for the AGM

Overall, we went out on a limb to make this an interesting and affordable event for BCLS members.

We could never have pulled this off without the committed (not mentally) committee who coordinated and put together the event.  Dennis Dean spent an enormous amount of time visiting in the Boundary area and arranging scouting trips to pick out sites that would be interesting and worthwhile.  He and Donna Carpenter set up and ran a worthwhile campsite, which was more than reasonably priced for the camper.  Mike Ryan coordinated the demos and display cases as well as helping with the meal ably assisted by wife Stephanie.  Duane Hamm oversaw the set up of the facility and he and Katherine MacNeill checked out and saw that Rock Candy tours were successful.  Katherine filled in in many areas where help and support was needed. Sandra Albo. helped coordinate the potluck Friday and assisted in the hospitality area on the weekend.  Sam (Sandra Smith) was awesome as she coordinated registration, advertising, and was saddled with the horrendous burden of filling the rock candy trip on Sunday, as so many people who booked a spot did not bother to show up or notify us and left us facing a possible $700 deficit. She also undertook the meal coordination on Sunday and made it work even though we had 30 committed meal orders not show up.  As for me, I found myself dealing with a few minor happenings thanks to the capable and committed efforts of the organizing committee.

Other than the organizing committee, we had a number of club members and friends who committed to the event and were there to help with whatever needed to be done.  Sharon Ewin, , Fred Wiley,  John Fair, Jason Albo, Gary and Cornelia Stromgen,  Sandy and Mike Fairburn, .,  Rob Webster, Bill and Judy Rogers, Fran and Alan Brooks,   --thanks for all your efforts.

In holding any event, the facility and the people you deal with, make or break the event.  We had a great facility at a most reasonable price. The Rock Creek Fair staff made every effort to make the event go smoothly.  The support from the people of the Boundary country in assisting with sites to explore, and in making us welcome was most appreciated. 

What we recommend for future events.

1.      All club commitment s for meals, trips, etc. need to be paid in advance.  We had over 30 people who had reserved for the Rock Candy trip who did not show up and thus left us scrambling to fill spots and also depriving fellow rock hounders of the opportunity to go on the Rock Candy trip.  There were also almost 30 people who asked for the meal and then did not pay or show up.  Our contracts left us in the position of having to pay for these commitments even though we did not have the people who committed show up.  This could have left the whole event as a monetary loss.

2.      We taxed our man power to the limit and unless a club has a much larger base than Penticton, I would suggest that catering the meal and running the campsite might be stretching it a bit.

3.      Set up of display cases, the bucket raffle, the auction, and collection of monies are all areas to be carefully considered.  Harley and Livia Waterson, were a great help in setting up the display cases as they were a puzzle close to a Rubik cube. Whats available and how to use what is in the trailer, well ahead of time,  would greatly assist in organization.   Ken Dewerson ably handled the bucket raffle with excellent support from club members.  The auction was Harley’s magic and Ron  Neilson, filled in at the last minute as auctioneer and made this an exciting event.  Because we had added Rock Candy, camping, and meals ,to the collection of monies, we supplied much of the coordination of the registration,  To promote continuity, I would suggest future events have this coordinated by the BCLS.

4.      It was also recommended that in light of the recent changes we made at the request of the BCLS, the guidelines for Rendezvous be updated to reflect the directions the BCLS wants to take.